College Football Association of Ireland

Colleges and Universities Clash

24 March 2014

NUI Maynooth Football Facilitator Barry Prenderville gets his initial taste of managing at representative level when he takes charge of the Irish Universities side in the annual Hooper Trophy challenge game against the Colleges FAI this Wednesday (2.0) at the Oscar Traynor Complex, Coolock.

It's the first outing of the season for the Universities side and with Prenderville taking over the managerial position from John Caulfield and including nine of the NUI Maynooth Collingwood Cup winning side in his squad he will be hoping for a bright start to his new role. 'I'm looking forward to the challenge of our two upcoming games against the Colleges FAI to-morrow and the following week when we face the Irish Defence Forces in April' explained Prenderville who currently manages St Patrick's Ath SSE Airtricity Under 19 League side.'It is my first venture into managing at representative level but I did assist a previous Irish Universities manager Paul Clarke for a couple of years and I know how difficult opponents the Colleges side can be' added Prenderville. Meanwhile manager Danny Crowley will be hoping to maintain the good form the Colleges FAI have already shown this season when they bid to retain the Hooper Trophy. Crowley's charges had convincing 2-1 wins in both of their recent games against the Irish Defence Forces at Mervue Utd and the Scottish Universities in Oriel Park and will look to retain the trophy for another year following last year's scoreless draw that followed a previous 4-0 victory over the Universities in 2012. The Colleges FAI programme of representative games will conclude on April 2 when they visit the newly opened FA of Wales Centre of Excellence at Dragon Park, Newport, South Wales to take on the Welsh Universities.